The Syrian Coalition urged the United States to take action in order to enforce a ceasefire in Syria and a halt to the Assad regime and Russia’s onslaught on eastern Ghouta as well as to put an end to Russia’s monopoly of the decision-making in Syria.

The calls were made during a meeting between the Syrian Coalition’s Foreign Affairs Department and Karen Decker, Director of the US’s Syria Transition Assistance and Response Team (START) on Friday. Both sides discussed the latest political and field developments as they emphasized the need for allowing the Raqqa province to be administered by the local population as well as the withdrawal of all militant groups from the city.

Head of the Foreign Affairs Department Abdel-Ahad Steifo stressed the need for a ceasefire in Syria and the prevention of any new mass forced displacement operations as the only way to reach a political settlement in Syria.

Steifo noted that the Russians are not committed to the implementation of the recently adopted UN resolution, but are trying to circumvent the resolution to make military gains and use them in the political process and impose their own vision of a political solution.

For her part, Decker said the United States is working tirelessly to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to residents of eastern Ghouta and is continuing its advocacy work with international actors to put an end to the killings and ensure the introduction of humanitarian assistance.

Decker added that the US administration is closely following on the Assad regime’s reported use of chemical weapons in Syria, noting that there is a "lack of confidence in the ability of the Russians to exercise more pressure on the Assad regime."

Steifo said that the latest reports about cooperation between the Assad regime and North Korea in the manufacture of chemical weapons is not a cause of concern to the Syrian people only as it poses a threat to the international community as a whole.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the bombing campaign in eastern Ghouta. The heavy bombings did not stop despite the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire on Saturday. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)